Yeah, like the title says.
I figured that it would feel somewhat pointless making a single thread for different Summon Night games, so, just like the Fire Emblem thread, I decided that one thread is fine. Feel free to discuss about any game in the series, from the normal Summon Nights to Swordcraft Story.

One random note first. Summon Night 2 will be remade and released for the DS sometime in the 4th quarter, if I remember correctly. Either way, later in the year.

Anyways, a review for Twin Age. Because of the length (partially to release frustration), I'm covering with it in a spoiler tag, but there are no story spoilers right away, so open without worry. The actual spoilers are covered in a spoiler tag in the first spoiler tag.

Spoiler:

Before I start, I don't know what people like Ain or Nasl are translated to. Romanized, it is "kausukuzafu", but that Dr. Seuss leveled name is annoying, so I'll refer to them as "laguz" in this review.
One more thing, does Atlus like working harder than they need and change names? The names of the characters are spelled differently in the English and Japanese version...

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First... game play.

Anyone interested in buying the game should already know what the basic gameplay is like.
-To choose destinations, double-touch the area
-In dungeons, touch enemy to fire or press the + pad and touch the screen to fire at an area

This is the better part of the game. It is very boring at first, where you can simply touch the enemy and watch the battle, but later in the game, there are times where you get swarmed and it gets chaotic (in a good way). Boss battles are a decent challenge... kind of.
The thing is... almost every boss battle can be won if you do this:
1. Fight
2. When your partners die, start running around the screen, avoiding the boss
3. Run until the bars fill up and your partners revive at full health
4. Resume fight and repeat as necessary.
See?

When I first looked through the instruction booklet, the skill setting and everything looked confusing, but when I actually tried it, it was actually really easy. Yay.

The game is short... I was able to complete it in around 16 hours or so. If you are looking for a long game, this isn't the one for you.

Battle animation is simple, but not in a bad way. The higher level skills even have cutscenes.

Artwork is great. No complaints at all. Love it.

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Replay value...

Low. The story is linear, overall. There are decisions, affecting a few minor events, but it doesn't effect the general story.
I saw somewhere on Gamefaqs that there are ends for every character, but I haven't tried it out myself yet, since I've only beat the game once.
Night conversations is the only other part that provides replay value.

To be honest, I can't find myself really reading through the whole game again.
After I finish the EX dungeons, I plan to go back and play through the game as Aldo (first time through, I used Reha), and see if I can get the end of one certain character (see character section later). Probably, I'll skip through most of the text, except the night conversations.

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Characters...

Finally, about the characters. Let me first say, this is probably the second worst part of the game. Of course, if you have different tastes, you might like them.

To be honest, most of them are annoying.
They act like saints half the time, and they are cheesy half the time, with an extra eighth of the time, they act annoyingly.

I don't even want to remember how many times they went "we're friends/allies".

The main four(?), Aldo, Reha, Nasl, Ain are especially annoying, going "that's so mean" or whatever whenever they see something bad the humans have done. It's like they think that communicating with the wind, talking with spirits, and being saints in general make them so much better for them to judge humans for the "bad" things they did. I admit, they did bad things, but I, myself, don't feel they were so "bad" at all.

Ain is just plain annoying. First or second time was fine, but she keeps on going "the air is bad here", or "the spirits are restless", or "the shadows are lingering", or "that's so cruel".
Sheesh... Yeah, that's horrible, that's cruel. Sorry that humans aren't perfect like you laguzes or anything. :rolleyes::rolleyes:

Nasl... is bad too, in a different way. He's just a racist. Godamn racist. I knew he was going to be annoying when I realized he was one, but it turned out much worse. I don't want to see him go "that's why summoners can't be trusted" or "is that what summoners are like?!" ever again.

The other characters aren't so bad.

At the most, I have a problem with Lila. Don't like her, don't feel like talking about her either. One thing about the end...

Spoiler for end of game/anger from me:

She dares to say that in place of Zararm, she'll teach Tica instead. Haha, can you believe this woman? She actually dares to say this.Zararm can teach her!! Let him out of jail or wherever you dragged him to!! You don't need to do anything for Tica!! BYE! BYE! BYE! BYE! DIE! BYE! BYE! BYE!

*cough*
Anyways...
Though I managed to have two favorite characters.

One is Zararm.
I sometimes wonder why I like this guy. Probably because in the middle of these saints, he is one of the few that acts like a normal human, even if he doesn't look like the nicest guy in the world or anything.

The other is Tica.
Before I say anything, let me note two things I think whenever I see her.
1. That hat is weird.
2. Her name reminds me of "teacup".
Tica=ティカ
Teacup=ティーカップ
She isn't much of a saint. YAY! Her basic personality is "kind girl", but that isn't the same from "saints", and I really liked her character (and character design).
And anyone who would cover for Zararm is an ally in my book.
To get her end (assuming the game has multiple ends), I will play the game one more time. For her end. I have -10% interest in the others.
I have a bad feeling I will like this game less after seeing her end...

In the end, I must stress that what I feel towards the characters is not anger, but just irritation/fed up as the story proceeded.

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Voices-

They have voices in the game, for all of the characters.
The thing to note is that besides for a few lines, every "voice" are just a couple of words/kanji like "damarinasai" or "aah!" which the game uses and reuses at points.
They talk in battles too, but that just gets repetitive.

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Story.....

The possibly worst part of the game?
To tell the truth, I can't really pinpoint what made this part of the game failed.
The game kept my interest through the whole game, making me want to know more, but at the same time, as I played, it only got more dissatisfying.

I guess you should just play and see the disappointing-ness of the game yourself.
Let me point out you shouldn't believe what Atlus says on their website about how it was a "rich" adventure story. If this game's story was rich, then I'm the richest man in the world.

Maybe it's the:

1. Low impact of the story
2. Plot twists are as surprising as the rotation between day and night (in other words, the plot twists are too predictable)
3. The antagonists in this game are pathetic, in all kinds of ways
4. The characters
For one thing, the length doesn't really matter to me.

Though one source of irritation is how everything turned out.
Not only did I not like the development (personal feelings), it really felt like it was thrown together messily and had no real impact (non-personal feelings).

Spoiler for game end:

So in the end, Zararm, who looks like a bad guy, is the main bad guy who was pulling the strings on everything.
God, how predictable. I was hoping it would be Murdin.
And then, soon after he reveals he is the mastermind, the great evil beast of whatever berserks and he doesn't end up doing much anything, gets pulled to the sideline as the saints fight the final fight, later participates to seal up the beast, and gets dragged to jail for his severe punishment, leaving Tica at the hands of that damned Lila.

Yeah, there goes my two favorite characters...

Oh, and they really should have stopped introducing characters at the end of the game.
Thinking back, the antagonists never really had any good character development or depth.

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Final thoughts-

6/10 (Mediocre/Average)

The gameplay was what saved this game from being bad. Despite how much I ranted on the story and characters, those two points didn't really destroy the enjoyability of the game. Also, please note that even though I say those parts were the "worst" of this game, I do not mean it is the worst of games, so please don't think these parts absolutely fail. Just bad, not fail.

For some reason, this game is extremely hated by some people... Because it isn't "Summon Night"?

I would suggest the rental of the game. The main reason I suggest so is that... the game is short. Pretty short. Plus, you have to couple that with the story and characters. If the game was longer, it would be much more worth buying, is what I think.

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Thank you for reading to the end!, assuming you did instead of skipping all the way down.

American release on June 3. Soon!
I wonder if they intend to dub the game...
Anticipation?